That's just outstanding. Thank
you, Brady. I love that song so much. Brady knows that. Sunday, I said, now before you
go back to college, I have a request. That's all I had to say. He sung
that song for us tonight. So thank you, Brady. It just
thrills my heart. Now if you would, open your Bibles
with me first tonight to Matthew chapter 11. As I began seeking the Lord's
message for tonight, I obviously thought about the Lord's table
that we'll eat in just a few minutes. And I also, my mind
turned to being thankful since tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.
And you know there can't be a better holiday, a holiday better suited
to believers than Thanksgiving, can there? How much we have to
be thankful for. It's just innumerable. They even
said, many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou
hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us work. They can't even
be reckoned up in order. If I would declare and speak
of them, there are more than can be numbered. I have a lot
of trouble falling asleep, always have. Even when I was a little
boy, I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. My mother would tell
me, go lay down in bed and start counting your blessings. That
takes a long time, doesn't it? It takes a long time. We're so
blessed. And I have been thinking about
this even when the Lord sends us trials. And many of us are
going through those things now. You know we still have so much
to be thankful for, don't we? Because when the Lord sends us
a trial, you know what he also always does? He keeps his promise
and sends us grace that's sufficient. And that's just a sweetness that
you can't experience until you need it. Lord's got to put you
in that time of trial for you experience the sweetness of his
grace being sufficient. So with all that in mind, it
occurred to me to look up the times that our Lord Jesus gave
thanks. And I found four of them. And
I want to look at those this evening before we take the Lord's
table. And I want to be thankful. I
want to be thankful for, you know, so many things, I think
it's especially right to be thankful for the things that our Savior
said he was thankful for. Don't you reckon? So first, the
Savior gave thanks for sovereign mercy. Look here in Matthew chapter
11, beginning in verse 16. But where unto shall I liken
this generation? It's like unto children sitting
in the markets and calling unto their fellows, and saying, we've
piped unto you, and you've not danced. And we've mourned unto
you, and you've not lamented. For John came, neither eating
nor drinking, and they say, hath the devil. The son of man came
eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a man gluttonous,
a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom
is justified of her children." You think of these folks, they
heard John the Baptist preach, and they heard Christ the Savior
preach. You think of that. Verse 20, began he to upbraid
the cities where most of his mighty works were done, because
they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe
unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if
the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in
Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto
you that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment than for thee. The Lord upbraided all these
pious, pious, pious religious people for their unbelief. Like I said, they heard John
the Baptist preach, the forerunner of Christ. They heard Christ
himself preach, and what was their reaction? pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick, pick, just picked them apart. Instead of believing
what they preach, they just picked them apart. They had all the
right form of religion, didn't they? They were very pious, very,
very devoted to their religion. They were good theologians. I
just bet you they were good debaters. They liked to get together, they
were good debaters. They studied the scriptures.
Now they knew what the scripture said, you know, and Herod wanted
to know where the Christ would be born, You know, when the Savior
asked him about Christ, his son, they knew, they knew what the
scripture said, didn't they? They studied the scriptures,
not so that they'd know Christ, but so they could impress folks
with their knowledge of the scriptures. But the Lord was not impressed,
was he? He wasn't impressed because they didn't have faith in Christ.
And these folks saw lots of miracles and not just miracles, Miracles
that the Lord performed although they did see but they they had
the miracle of the Son of God preaching the gospel to them
They saw the miracle of sinners being saved when the Savior preached.
I mean just I can't imagine If people today they want to see
that don't they want to see signs and wonders? They want to to
be so impressed with things that they see and you know hear preachers
doing But after all these people saw I mean they saw the real
McCoy now They still didn't believe in Christ and the Savior rebuked
them for it. Now, think about those people
and then think about us. To our shame, we're not as pious
as those old Jews were. We're not nearly as devoted to
the cause of Christ as they were devoted to the law, not nearly.
We haven't studied the scriptures like they did. We're just too
busy for that today. We haven't seen the kind of miracles
performed, you know, like they did, but now we've seen the miracle
of God's grace. We've seen that, haven't we?
But they saw bigger, more impressive, you know, to the flesh miracles
than what we've seen. They had a better head knowledge
of the scriptures than you and I will ever have. Now I say that
to our shame. But now they didn't believe on
Christ. How will we ever believe on Christ? They didn't, how am
I gonna believe on Christ? You wanna know the answer? Sovereign
mercy. Look at verse 25. Now at that
time, after our Lord said all this and made all this plain,
at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me and my father, and no man knoweth the
son but the father, neither knoweth any man save the son, and he
to whomsoever the son will reveal him. Now the wise and prudent
here, those are skilled teachers and theologians, that's what
the word means. The prudent, they're intelligent, having understanding. And that's what they thought
about themselves. They thought about themselves as skilled teachers
and theologians. They thought about themselves
as being very intelligent, have a lot of understanding. Now,
they were teachers. I mean, I grant you that, but
they were teachers that didn't know anything to teach. Their
understanding was darkened by sin. How could they ever teach
anything right, you know? They thought they were so wise,
they didn't need anybody to come teach them. They didn't need
anybody to come and show them the Father. They didn't need
anybody to come save them. So Christ didn't come save them.
Now the Savior here is not giving thanks that the Lord passed those
people by, the wise and the prudent. He's not giving thanks that the
Lord won't save those people. In Ezekiel, the Lord said, I
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He's not giving
thanks that those people will not be saved. The Savior is giving
thanks that babes, sinners are gonna
be saved because God's gonna show mercy to helpless sinners. That's what he's giving thanks
for. The Savior's saying he's thankful for sovereign, electing,
distinguishing grace for guilty sinners who don't know enough
to be able to save themselves. Now Luke's account of this very
same conversation. Luke said when the Savior said
this, he rejoiced in spirit. It rejoiced the spirit. of the
Savior, to know that the Father would show mercy to babes, guilty,
helpless sinners. And that's what the word babes
means. It means unskilled, untaught. It means dependent children.
You know, from eternity, God the Father chose to save babes. And Christ came to suffer and
die for spiritually helpless babes. That's who he came to
save. And since that's true, verse 28, the Savior says, come
unto me. Now he just told us here about
sovereign, distinguishing, electing grace, didn't he? And what did
he say? Well, now some of you got to
stay away. He said, come unto me. Whoever you are, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest unto your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. Now, you hear what the Savior
of sinners says there? If you're so helpless that you can't save
yourself, come to Christ. He came to save helpless sinners.
If you're so ignorant, you're one of these unskilled, untaught,
ignorant people that you can't see any reason why God would
save you, well, I tell you, come to Christ. And that's what the
Savior said. Come to Christ. He came to save people like you.
If you've grown so tired of being under the burden of the law and
trying to please God by keeping His law, and you just can't do
it, you can't do enough to make God satisfied with you, and you're
worn out by it. Tell you what to do. Come to
Christ. He said that's the people He
came to save, isn't it? Christ saves sinners by sovereign
grace. It's not because of how much
we know. It's not because how much we do right, it's not how
good we are. God saves sinners by sovereign
grace and grace alone. James said, God resisted the
proud. Those skilled, those wise, those prudent, he resisted the
proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He gives grace to
the babes. The message of sovereign grace
simply says this, salvation's up to God. It's all up to him.
You and I are in God's hand and he's gonna do with us as he pleases.
And whatever he does is right, he'll make it right. It's right
if he damns us for our sin, that's God's justice, it'll be right.
And the sacrifice of Christ makes it so that God's right to show
mercy to his people. It's all in the Lord's hand.
And I'm thankful, aren't you? The Lord was thankful for it,
I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for God's sovereign,
electing grace. I'm so thankful for it. It's
the only way a sinful man like me could be saved. God had to
choose me first. Christ had to come save me on
purpose. It's the only way I can be saved. Right now, second,
look at Matthew chapter 15. The Lord gave thanks for the
preaching of the gospel to the hungry. Matthew 15 verse 32. And Jesus called his disciples
unto him, Instead, I have compassion on the multitude because they
continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I'll
not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. And his
disciples say unto him, now remember, this is not too long after the
Lord performed the first miracle of the loaves and fishes. This
is still fresh on their minds, or at least it should be. And
look at the question they ask. When should we have so much bread
in the wilderness as to feel so great a multitude? I mean,
aren't they just like us? Just like us. And Jesus saith
unto them, how many loaves have ye? And they said, seven, and
a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude
to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven fishes, or
seven loaves and the fishes, and he gave thanks. And he break
them and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude,
and they did all eat and were filled. And they took up of the
broken meat that was left seven baskets full. And they that did
eat were 4,000 men, beside women and children. Now, like I said,
this is the second time the Lord performed this miracle, feeding
a multitude with the loaves and the fishes. And both times the
Lord performs this miracle, it's a picture of God creating new
life in his people through the preaching of Christ, the bread
of life. Now, before the Lord performed this miracle, This
multitude had come out to him in the wilderness. It was a large
multitude, 4,000 men. I'm not counting women and children. I'm not telling how large this
crowd was. And they came to the Lord for healing. Everybody that
needed healing, they came to the Savior and He healed them.
He healed every one of them. Well, now it's the third day
and it's evening. The multitude is hungry. Their day is not like our day.
There weren't restaurants they could go to. They couldn't call
up Grubhub to come deliver them some food. So the Lord fed the
multitude. He fed that multitude with seven
loaves of bread and just a few little sardines, small fishes.
And before he did, verse 36 says, the Savior gave thanks. Now that
is more than giving thanks before we eat a meal. That's how we
do, we always give thanks before we eat. The Lord is giving thanks
for the miracle that he's about to perform and what that miracle
pictures. The Lord took those loaves and
those fishes and started breaking them in pieces. Taking the pieces
he broke and handing them to his disciples. And the disciples
turned around and gave it to the multitude. Now I'm telling
you that's a picture of gospel preaching if I've ever seen it.
God's preacher, he gets in the study. And he prays, he begs
God, he gets in God's word and he seeks a message. Not just
a bunch of true doctrinal statements. But he's seeking a message from
God. A message from God for his people, from God's word. And
when God gives it to him, you know what that preacher does?
He just turns around and gives it to the people exactly like
the Lord gave it to him. That's what these disciples were
doing. That's how God feeds his people, his hungry people, from
his word. And this is not just a religious form, a religious
thing that we do, this thing of preaching Christ. There's
life-giving power in the preaching of Christ. And that's pictured
here. The Savior broke this bread.
He broke those few little fishes. And when he did, he created matter
that wasn't there before. He created bread that wasn't
there before. He created fishes that weren't there before. Those
seven loaves and a few little sardines were enough to satisfy
the hunger of everybody that was in that multitude. Because
the Lord created matter. After everybody was filled. I
mean, they're stuffed. Think of that tomorrow. You sit
down to Thanksgiving dinner and boy, you get done eating. You
say, I'm not gonna eat again for three days. I'm stuffed.
When every, there's 4,000 men plus women and children when
they were all stuffed. They had seven baskets full.
They had more than what they started with, because the Lord
created matter. Now that's a picture of God's
creating power that He uses in the preaching of the gospel.
When God gives life to a dead sinner, one of those babes that
the Father chose to save, when He gives life to one of those
babes, He does it through the preaching of the gospel. And
He takes that word, the seed of the word of God that's being
preached, and He plants it in the heart of that babe. and causes
a new nature to be born. A brand new man who was never
there before. That's God's creating power.
Causing the birth of a brand new man. And that is what our
Savior was giving thanks for. I thought about this yesterday.
I give thanks for the preaching of the gospel in our day. You
know, there are times in the dark ages Boy, you could never
find it. You know, Bibles were written
in Latin and locked away and common ordinary folks like us
couldn't get our hands on a Bible. And if we did, we couldn't read
it. We wouldn't understand Latin. The gospel is preached in our
day. And I'm thankful, because that's the only way a dead sinner
like me could ever know Christ. God sent me a preacher who is
faithful to preach Christ, Christ alone. I'm thankful for the preaching
of the gospel in general, just wherever it's preached, I'm thankful.
I'm always thankful to hear that, boy, there's a place, I never
even knew these people existed, and there they've been, preaching
the gospel. Bro. Tom Harding found one in
Wyoming or someplace, you know. Never knew this guy existed,
but boy, there they are, preaching the gospel. I'm thankful to hear
that. I'm thankful, because that means
the Lord's still saving His people. The Lord's still feeding his
people through the preaching of the word. God hadn't left
us to ourselves. I don't know if this is selfish
or not, but I can't help but feel this way. I sure am thankful
that the Lord's been pleased to have the gospel preached right
here to us. I'm so thankful the Lord hadn't
left us to our own devices. He could've took the gospel away
from us, couldn't he? He could have put the candlestick out
or moved the candlestick, what the Lord talked about there in
Revelation, but he didn't. He has his word preached to us. That's something to be thankful
for. God gives life to his people. God feeds his people through
the preaching of the gospel. He's kept that for us. I hope
we guard it carefully. I hope we do. I now look at John
chapter 11, here's the third thing. And this is just thrilling. The
Savior gave thanks that the Father hears him. John 11 verse 32. Then when Mary was come where
Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto
him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping,
which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
He said, where have you laid him? And they said unto him,
Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews,
behold how he loved him. And some of them said, could
not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused
that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore, again
groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave and
a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto
him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he's been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest
believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Then they took
away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that
thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he
thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose
him and let him go. Now before the Lord called Lazarus
from the grave, he prayed and he gave thanks. Verse 41 says
he gave thanks that the father always hears him. Now he wasn't
giving thanks that the father had given him power to raise
Lazarus from the dead to perform this miracle because he hadn't
performed it yet. He was giving thanks that the
father always hears him. This goes a whole lot deeper
than this one miracle. He gave thanks that the father
had always heard him and that the father will always hear him.
He was giving thanks as the mediator, as the intercessor for his people.
He was thankful that the father heard him and believed him and
eternity passed. When the father chose a people
to save and the son said, father, I'll be their representative.
I'll be their sacrifice, I promise you I'll come and do everything
it takes to save those people from their sin. The father heard
him. And the father believed him.
The father was the one who first trusted Christ to come as a savior.
That's the reason the father didn't wipe out the whole human
race when Adam sinned. Because he heard the son. When
the son said, father, they'll fall into sin and I'll save them. I'll come and save them. And
when the savior came as a man, Now he was the Lord of Glory.
He knew he was the Lord of Glory. He was always the Lord of Glory.
He always had the power, the omnipotence of God because he
is God. So as God, he needed no help,
didn't he? But as a man, he needed help. He needed strength from
his father. That's the very reason our Savior
was known as a man of prayer. Sometimes he spent all night
in prayer. He's a man of prayer. And the
Lord was thankful that the Father always heard him. The Father
always sustained him so that he could obey the law, so that
he could fulfill all righteousness, to make his people the righteousness
of God in him. The Savior was thankful that
the Father would hear his prayer when it came time for him to
be made sin and to offer himself as a sacrifice of his people.
He was thankful that the Father would hear him, that the Father
would accept his sacrifice. He was thankful that once that
sacrifice was made, the father would glorify him with the glory
that he had with the father before the world was. He was thankful
that the father would glorify him because his sacrifice was
gonna put away the sin of his people once and for all. That's
why the father was gonna glorify him. He was thankful that over
all of human time, The gospel would be preached and the Savior
would call out to one of his people. Lazarus, come forth.
Earl, come forth. Ralph, come forth. Charlotte,
come forth. And the Father always would hear him and give life
and call those people to come to Christ. The Father was thankful
or the Savior was thankful. When he returned back to glory,
the Father always would hear him. He would turn back to glory
to ever live, ever making intercession for the sin of his people. And
when he made intercession for his people, he's already giving
thanks, the father would hear him. Because when he goes back
to glory, you know what he's gonna plead in his intercession
for his people? He's gonna plead his blood. He's gonna plead his
obedience and he was thankful. The father would always hear
him. He'd always forgive his people. He'd always save them.
Now, if you're a sinner, Saved by grace, you trust Christ. Doesn't
it thrill your heart to know, aren't you thankful the Father
always hears your Savior? When He intercedes for you, the
Father always hears Him. Doesn't that let you rest? The
Father's not gonna forgive me on account of something I did.
It's because He always hears the Son. I'm thankful, aren't
you? Right now last, look back at
Matthew again, Matthew chapter 26. Our Savior gives thanks for his
sacrifice, for his broken body and his shed blood. That's what
we're come to remember tonight. Now, Matthew 26 verse 17. Now the first day of the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, was come, the disciples came to Jesus saying
unto him, where wilt thou that we should prepare for thee to
eat the Passover? He said unto them, go into the
city to such a man and say unto him, the master saith, my time
is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And
when the evening was come, he sat down with the 12, and as
they did eat, He said, verily I say unto you that one of you
shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful
and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, he
that dibbeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. The son of man goeth as it's
written of him. But woe unto that man by whom the son of man
is betrayed. It'd been good for that man if
he'd not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, thou
hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples
and said, take ye, this is my body. And he took the cup and
gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it. For
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for the remission,
for many for the remission of sins. Now this is the last Passover. And this is the last one because
the next day, Christ, the Lamb of God, is gonna be sacrificed
for the sin of his people. The Lamb of God. John the Baptist,
that's how he first identified him. Behold, the Lamb of God
has taken away the sin of the world. Now the day's come that
he'll be sacrificed as the Passover Lamb. The Father's gonna pass
over the sin of his elect because Christ, his blood had been shed
to take that sin away. There's gonna be no more need
of the picture now, now that the actual has come and been
slain. And as the Savior was eating that last Passover, and
as we read to open the service, he had great desire. He'd been
looking forward to this night, to eat the last Passover with
his disciples. And he told them, before he instituted
the first Lord's table, he told them, one of you 12, you've been
with me for three and a half years. We've been close friends,
you're my disciples. I've taught you. how close that they'd be. He
said, one of you is gonna betray me so that I'll be taken and
crucified. Now the Lord said, I'm going
as it's written. This is my father's will. This
is my father's eternal will. I'm not bucking against it. But
he did say it'd been better for that man if he'd never been born.
This was still emotionally crushing to the heart of the Savior. Someone
who seemed to be his friend. Long time. Betrayed him. If that's ever happened to you,
you know how much that hurts. And the Lord still gave thanks.
Now you think of that. At that time, he's going to be
betrayed. He knows it. He gave thanks. And he knows
what's going to come of this betrayal. He knows the suffering
that he's gonna go through. None of it's gonna be a surprise
to him, he knows it. You know why he knows it? It's
his will. It's his will that will be carried
out. That his body will be broken under the rod of God's justice.
He gave his back to the smiters. He gave his face to those that
would pluck out his beard. He gave his face to those that
would spit on him. He gave his body to be pierced.
his hands and his feet to be nailed to the... He gave his
body to be broken that way. The disciples had no idea, but
the Savior did. When he took that loaf of unleavened
bread and started breaking it. What did that mean? The Savior
knew. He broke it. This is how his
body will be broken. And he turned and gave it to
his disciples and said, take heed, this is my body. This is
a picture of how my sacrifice is gonna put your sin This is
the picture of how you're gonna be saved for my father's justice.
I'm gonna bear it for you. I'm gonna be broken for you so
that you won't be. He knew the unimaginable physical
agony that was coming. And he gave thanks. He gave thanks. Because this is the only way
his sinful people could be saved. When was the last time? You just
think of the time in your life you've been in the most pain. Did it ever cross your mind to
say thank you for this pain? The Savior knew what was coming
and gave thanks because he loves his people. And he gave thanks
for his blood, the blood that would be shed for the propitiation
of the sin of his people. He would make his soul an offering
for sin. And he would take his blood behind
the veil into the very presence of the father. Just like the
high priest on the day of atonement would take the blood of an animal,
go behind the veil into the presence of God, sprinkle that blood on
the mercy seat. Here the son is gonna take his
blood before the father. Oh, the agony of that, to make
his soul an offering for sin. And he gave thanks. He gave thanks. Because this is the only way
the sin of the people that he loves could be forgiven. The only way the people he loves
could be washed white as snow. Could have those robes washed
white in the blood of the land and be in his presence forever
is if his blood is shed. His blood is applied. Now you
think he gave thanks. In a few moments, The men are
going to distribute the bread. And before we eat it, we'll give
thanks. Just like our Savior did this
first night, the night of the very first Passover, the first
Lord's table. We'll give thanks. We'll take
that bread and we'll eat it. Thankfully. When we take that
bread and eat it, what we're saying is, my only hope that
I'm not condemned in the judgment is Christ my substitute was already
crushed for me. When He was crushed, He satisfied
God's justice for me, so I'll not be condemned. When you're holding that wafer
in your hand, you think of that. And when you eat it, you'll be thankful.
The Savior was crushed, so I won't be. And we take the wine, we'll
stop and we'll give thanks. Because when we're drinking that
wine, this is our confession. It's a confession of faith. My
faith is in Christ. The only hope I have that my
sin would be forgiven is Christ shed His blood for me. He did
it on purpose for me. Now that gives you a good hope,
doesn't it? You think about that. This is
not just a ceremony we're going through. We'll get this over
quickly so we can go home and get ready for Thanksgiving. This
is the blood of Christ we're picturing here. This is a confession
of my faith in Him. that His blood is all it takes
to put my sin away. If we think of it that way, I'm
telling you, we'll be thankful when we take it. See, I saved this last one because
we're getting ready to observe the Lord's table. I want this
fresh on our mind when we observe it. But this sacrifice of Christ
is the foundation of everything else that the Savior gave thanks
for. Since He sacrificed, There's blood to apply to those babes.
They don't know nothing, they can't do nothing to save themselves.
Since the blood of Christ has been shed, there's a sacrifice
for them, for those babes. Since Christ is sacrificed, there's
a good news of the gospel to preach to hungry sinners. It's
the sacrifice of Christ. Come feast, he's all you need.
Since Christ was sacrificed, that's the reason we know the
father will always hear his son. It's because of his blood. Because
the sacrifice of Christ satisfied the father. Now, I think of that,
I can't think of a better reason to be thankful than you. All
right, Wayne, if you would, you may distribute the bread.